Open Accesstwitter sharing button linkedin sharing button facebook sharing button whatsapp sharing button email sharing button print sharing button Prevalence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea among hospitalized Jordanian patients
Author(s) -
Shehabi Aa,
Abu-Ragheb Ha,
Allaham Na
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
eastern mediterranean health journal/eastern mediterranean health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1687-1634
pISSN - 1020-3397
DOI - 10.26719/2001.7.4-5.750
Subject(s) - social media , internet privacy , world wide web , clostridium difficile , medicine , advertising , computer science , business , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , antibiotics
We investigated stool specimens of 400 patients at Jordan University Hospital [300 patients with clinical diarrhoea and 100 controls without diarrhoea] for the presence of Clostridium difficile or its toxin. We found a 9.7% prevalence rate of C. difficile or its toxin in stools of patients with diarrhoea. The prevalence of other potential enteric pathogens, such as Salmonella spp. [2.3%], Shigella spp. [1.0%] and Entamoeba histolytica [2.7%], was significantly less. Prevalence of C. difficile or its toxin in controls was 3.0%. Toxin A was detected in 93.1% of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea cases using an enzyme immunoassay. Our study indicates that C. difficile-associated diarrhoea is mostly observed among hospitalized patients aged > or = 50 years, in association with antimicrobial treatment.